Friday, July 24, 2009

Oh man, wish I'd have read Caleb's comment about a week ago

So I've been at Myrtle Beach for the past 7 days and just returned earlier today. At Myrtle Beach, we had only dial-up internet in which we had to pay for by the minute and the hook-up was in the parents' bedroom, so needless to say, my time online was very limited. I missed a lot of things including some punknews.org updates, BSC's one year anniversary post, and Caleb's comment to me telling me that Mark Gauthier was this distressed about me wanting to quit band. Now I'll go over this once more and this is it. I would love to love to want to be in band or to even want to be in band but the fact of the matter here is that my friends in the drumline and some in the entire band have already quit and left me to deal with those who Mark, so Caleb pointed out, also cannot stand to be around. Now if there was one reason I'd want to stay it'd be to be there for Mark because Mark Gauthier has really made me into a drummer that I'm proud to be and I hate to leave him on his own. But I don't know if it's really worth it for me. Everyone keeps pulling this "You love playing drums. You should play drums in the band. It's that simple." No, it's not. I'm sorry, but it's not.

Okay, so I'm heavily considering running cross country this year since I won't be doing band. I was asked today, "Do you like running or playing drums more?" Well, drumming, of course. But no, that's not a reason to play in band. I love drumming, so I have a band that I play with and play however I like whenever I want and not whenever I don't want. Playing in I Forget also doesn't require me to spend an entire month of my summer standing out in the sun with a bunch of people I can't stand to be around being ordered to do this and that. I Forget is my dream, Frankfort High School Marching Band is like a whatever thing. Running sounds like fun and there's someone I'd like to be around (Nick George) who I'd be running with. So it makes sense to me whether or not it makes sense to anyone else. Also you can't fuck up running so no one can criticize me.

So I gotta break this to my dad sometime this weekend probably. I'm leaving on Sunday with Tim, Jim, and Alex to go to Cedar Point in Ohio until Wednesday. I'm super stoked. And we play a show next Thursday. So I am just set to go for the next while, but breaking to my dad that I'm not doing band isn't going to be easy or fun. Now about my past week!

So I spent the entire week laying on the beach, getting a little darker, running, playing Mario Kart DS, watching TV, and putting up with Zane. I enjoyed myself to my fullest for once even though Zane made it very difficult. Guess where I went last night!!!!

Okay, so the week of sun and screaming ended with a punk show. Rise Against, Rancid, and Billy Talent at the House of Blues. Okay, I'll start from opening act.

Billy Talent. The only song by them I really knew was "Try Honesty" though I have their entire first album on my iPod. Little did I know they're very enjoyable all of the time. Great show. Guitarist had great hair that you could have eaten cereal out of and played guitar like it was killing him. Very good at it, though. Singer has a very unique voice. Cross between Mike from the AKA's and something more melodic. Very good vocal melodies and songs in general. Great live show, great intros, great breakdowns, great banter. Canadians do it best arguably.

Rancid. Rancid, Rancid, Rancid. Never been a huge Rancid fan. Never really, really got it. Well they showed me what it was all about. It was more of a hugpit than a moshpit, which was kind of fun. When they came out with "Fall Back Down" it was like everyone was a huge family and were all singing together and fuckin' whatever. Great time. It was like watching Disclosure times 50. Great performance while not giving a fuck. I was expecting it to be sloppier than it was. The crowd really weren't all that familiar with the new songs. Nor was I. I think they only played two new ones. I remember they played "Fall Back Down," "Ruby Soho," "Olympia, WA" (my personal favorite), "Time Bomb," "Maxwell Murder," "Journey to the End of East Bay," "East Bay Nights," "Tenderloin," and...I think that's all I remember. Great set for them, too! Only time they kind of lost everyone was when they played a new song that Matt sings with acoustic guitars, an up-right bass, and those thick drum brush-like things. Bad choice in that part. I don't really like songs that Matt sings. But whatev. Rancid is officially a fucking awesome punk band. Tim and Lars didn't look the way I expected them to in person. Tim looked less scruffy and Lars was a lot smaller than I imagined him.

Rise Against. I've been listening to Rise Against since I was in 7th grade. RPM is still my favorite album by them I think, though I do love me some Siren Song of the Counter Culture. Blah blah blah, no one cares. Point being I don't like their new album very much. I've been over this. Well it was a good thing I didn't know all of their new songs or I'd have probably screamed so many lyrics that I'd have died or something. Just singing their old ones was enough to fuck my vocal chords and I'm just short of good descriptions. I don't plan on being a journalist in my future, so it's not a real big deal. Anyway, second song they played was "State of the Union." Felt like I was back in Baltimore watching Paint It Black again. Tim McIlrath is fucking awesome. Rise Against is a fucking good band and it's not fair to judge a band by their latest album I've decided. Songs I knew include, and I've always been bad with their song titles, "State of the Union," "Paper Wings," "Blood to Bleed," "Ready to Fall," "Everchanging" (acoustically), "Dead Ringer," "The First Drop," "Give It All," "Dancing for Rain," "Chamber the Cartridge," "Prayer of the Refugee" (particularly kickass), "The Good Left Undone," and "Survive." They played a lot of new songs I didn't know. Including that acoustic one. Done talking about it. Go see them for yourself. Bands from Chicago kick ass. I just have to go see The Lawrence Arms and I'll have seen the arguably three biggest punk bands from the city.